1.   So I felt right at home in the torrential downpour during my first sporting clays lesson.

2.   Andre Agassi, like Sampras, was playing his first European clay match of the season and also fell in the first round.

3.   Before suddenly dropping his serve twice in the third set, Haas seemed on the way to winning his first clay court title without losing a set.

4.   Capriati was playing her first clay court tournament since her win last year at the French Open.

5.   Has won two titles so far this year in Hannover and at Hamburg, the first clay court title of her career ...

6.   It was her first clay court tournament of the year.

7.   Last week in Hamburg, Germany, Williams beat Pierce for her first clay title.

8.   Sampras and Andre Agassi, both playing their first European clay matches, also fell in the first round.

9.   Serena Williams, playing her first clay court semifinal, also faces unseeded Anna Smashova, the first Israeli to ever reach the semifinals of a major tournament.

10.   Still, Agassi said he felt comfortable in his first European clay match of the season.